FOUR Ds

During my working life, there always seemed plenty to do and heaps of stuff that caught my attention and needed some action. If one didn't take appropriate action then pretty soon there'd be another thing wanting your attention. In no time at all the list was so long it could give you that “snowed under” feeling. Somebody once said that you can only “feed so many monkeys”. It was easy just to take problems on board rather than deal with them right then and there or make a decision about what would happen to that particular problem/issue/monkey whatever.

I found that the best remedy was to put the FOUR Ds into practice. I could do one of four different things with the issue that had just arisen or the correspondence that I had just read:

• Dump it. Yes, there are times when it just needs to be dumped. Gives you a good feeling too.
• Delegate it. How cool it is to ask somebody else to handle the matter. And there are always bodies around that you can do a flick pass to.
• Date activate it. This simply means you make a decision that you will deal with this on Thursday straight after lunch or first thing Wednesday etc. Make a note in your diary that so that it will be attended to when you have decided will be an appropriate time to deal with it.
• Do it. Yep, that's one of the options. Maybe it can be attended to RIGHT NOW. Just DO IT!

Even in retirement one needs to be vigilant or else you can find yourself double booking or just neglecting to do something that you should have done. It's easy.

Give the FOUR Ds a go. When you open that letter from the agent or whoever, make a decision – are you gonna DUMP it, or DELEGATE it (Hey Honey, can you ring John and ask him if he could send us the quote? Thanks.) Or you can DATE activate it (determine when you will actually attend to it) or even just DO it. Like NOW!  This way you'll be a better manager.